This tree has plenty of bark
Look closely at the decorations and gifts on and around the six-foot tall holiday tree at Jillian’s Hair Salon in Lincoln City, and you’ll notice they are not the usual fare.
For almost a decade, owner Jillian Morris had used her business as a place for the “Christmas tree for fur friends,” where community members can drop off donations for animal shelters and rescue organizations.
“We get bags of treats, collars, leashes, toys, beds; anything that an adoptable animal might need,” she said. “I’ve even had a customer donate a beautiful hand-sewn quilt this year. We also have plenty of people that donate money. That is especially welcome so that the recipient can buy what they truly need.”
The salon is also a gallery for art that benefits rescues.
“We sell beautiful wooden signs by Debbie Hoffman and 100 percent of the proceeds go to rescue organizations,” Morris said. “We also have ceramic dog and cat masks from local artist Sam Jacobson. She had agreed to donate $10 from every sale, but this year when I went to give her the $430 we made, she donated it back to me for the cause.”
Morris’ interest in supporting the work done by animal shelters and rescue organizations began when she started the process of adopting a dog, which she thought would be a simple process.
“I couldn’t get anything finalized at the place where I had started looking, so I ended up looking at lots of different shelters,” she said. “It really made me aware of how many dogs, especially pit bulls, are in shelters and get euthanized.”
The dog she ended up with was a pit bull she named Moxie, who Jill adored, making her a life-long fan of the breed.
“I started doing the tree to raise things for the Tillamook shelter because they have lots of pit bulls and they didn’t have their facility yet,” she said.
And it just grew from there. This year, the recipients of the collection will be divided among the Tillamook Animal Shelter, the Lincoln County Animal Shelter, Ruff Life Rescue and SevaDog, a family-run rescue in the Willamette Valley.
“I started telling everyone that I was putting up a tree for shelters and everybody started understanding that it wasn’t going away, so they could depend on it being here” Morris said. “I have even started having people contacting me during the summer asking if I’m doing it.”
Morris tries to evenly divide things as much as she can.
“Some things would be better to go to a rescue rather than a shelter, though, and some places don’t have cats,” she said. “Also, sometimes people will write a check directly to a place. Debbie Hoffman’s donations generated by her sign sales all go to Sevadog, because she adopted her pitties from there.”
Morris said even clean used items are welcome — anything you think will improve the life of a dog or cat is welcome to help decorate the tree.
Drop off donations at Jillian’s, located at 1315 SW Hwy. 101 in Lincoln City, until Saturday, Dec. 24.